The already injury plagued 5-12 Brooklyn Nets will be without Paul Pierce for 2-4 weeks due to a broken third metacarpal bone in his right hand the team announced Monday. That is the bone that basically connects your middle finger to your wrist. The injury happened Friday night against the Houston Rockets and Pierce sat out Saturday’s Nets’ win over the Grizzlies on the road.

This means Alan Anderson will be starting for the Nets for a while, he was 0-6 from the floor against Houston.

Pierce is the Nets third leading scorer at 12.4 points per game but is shooting just 36.8 percent on the season (and 26.8 percent from three). He’s simply not been good.

Don’t this year’s Nets remind you of last year’s Lakers? A lot of star power but injuries have kept them from forming any kind of cohesive play — Deron Williams needs to be the offensive leader on this team but he missed all of training camp and a lot of time since (he is out Tuesday vs. Denver and doubtful for Thursday). Brook Lopez is the Nets best player right now and he just got back on the court and he is not 100 percent. Kevin Garnett looks old and is not leading any kind of transformation on the defensive end.

At some point the Nets should get healthier and string together some wins, which well could make them a playoff team in the East, but they are no kind of real threat to the elite.

Watching the Nets’ offense is pathetic. Let’s just give the ball to Joe Johnson at the top of the key, let him dribble for 10 seconds, try a couple screens with Lopez, and, if those don’t work, try a post up with Lopez. If Lopez can’t get a shot, it’s just Iso Joe for the remainder of the possession. Yes, it worked out against Memphis last game, but only because Johnson had a great shooting game (which is not often).

This offense has no creativity whatsoever, which is inexcusable for a team with this many veterans. Injuries are part of it, but without any offensive system, it falls on the coaching staff.